Joyce Stevens

Joyce Stevens AM (1928–2014) was an Australian socialist-feminist activist, communist, and historian, one of the founders of the women's liberation movement in Sydney, prominent in the wave of feminism that began in the late 1960s in Australia.

Stevens was active and at the vanguard of the women's liberation movement in Sydney, "agitating, educating, and organizing, helping set up the services women needed, and then later mentoring other women and chronicling women's history through her written work".

Early life

Stevens was born Joyce Barnes on 6 January 1928 at Cullen Bullen, New South Wales near Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia. Her first home was a tin shed. Her mother had been a nurse, her father was a railway fettler, who moved from job to job. At age six, living near Casino, NSW Stevens recalled that they lived on the rabbits and foxes he trapped. During childhood she developed a strong sense of social justice,

In 1942 the family moved to Sydney, where Stevens briefly attended North Sydney Girls High School. Her first job was as an articled clerk at a law firm.

In 1988 she was recognised by the Sydney Public Tenants' Council for her commitment to public housing and as advocate for public housing tenants.

Publications

Author

Stevens, J. (c.1970) Tendencies in the women's liberation movement, Australia. Stevens, J. (1975) Because We're Women —written for an International Women's Day broadsheet, the words have been republished on Australian and overseas postcards, stickers, posters and T-shirts. Stevens, J. (1976) Taking the Revolution Home: Work among Women in the Communist Party of Australia 1920–1945, Sybylla Co-operative Press and Publications, Fitzroy, Victoria. Stevens, J. (1985) A History of International Women's Day in Words and Images, IWD Press, Pennington, South Australia. Stevens, J. (1991) Lightening the Load: Women and Work: A History of Women's Employment Action Centre (WEAC) 1982–1989, Women's Employment Action Centre, South Sydney, New South Wales. Stevens, J. (1995) Healing Women: A History of Leichhardt Women's Community Health Centre, First Ten Years History Project, Leichhardt, New South Wales.

Chapters in publications

Stevens, J. (1980) Without Fear or Favour: Lucie Barnes, in Women, Class and History: Feminist Perspectives on Australia, 1788–1978, Windschuttle, Elizabeth (editor) Fontana/Collins, Sydney. Stevens, J. (1986) The Politics of Reconstructing Socialism in Moving Left: The Future of Socialism in Australia, McKnight, D. (editor), Pluto Press, Sydney. Stevens, J. (1993) A Reasonable Exchange in Glorious Age: Growing Older Gloriously, Scutt, J.A., Artemis, Melbourne.

Documentary archive

Stevens, J. and Wills, J., archivists, The First Ten Years of Sydney Women's Liberation, ca. 1969-ca. 1980 – a collection of textual records, sound recordings, graphic materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, ephemera, & posters, acquired by the State Library of NSW in 1999. Stevens, J. and Barnes, L. Joyce Stevens papers, 1912–2005, including her manuscripts and dozens of recorded interviews with women activists, were presented to the State Library of NSW by Waldran, J, April 2009.